Scheme of work

This Scheme of work is provided to help you make the most of your planning time. Customise this by adding your own activities/lesson ideas to the ‘Activities’ column.

Guided learning hours (GLH): 60

Number of lessons: 30

Duration of lessons: 2 hours

Lesson / Unit content* / Activities / Resource checklist
Learning aim A: Understand additional needs of children
1 / Unit introduction
Definition of ‘additional needs’ including physical, sensory, communication, behavioural or learning disability, long-term or life-limiting condition and emotional health and wellbeing needs that impact on a child’s daily life. / ●Teacher presentation (approx. 10 minutes)to introduce the unit:Outline the nature of the learning aims and inform learners of the number of assignmentsthey will be expected to complete.
●Small group activity: Learners discuss and agreea definition of the term ‘additional needs’.
●Small group activity:Ask learners to create a thought shower on the range of additional needs children may have – physical, sensory, communication, behavioural or learning disability, long-term or life-limiting condition and emotional health and wellbeing needs. Groups to feed back to the rest of the class.
●Teacher input: On the whiteboard, listthe range of terms relating to additional needs – physical, sensory, etc. – used in learning aim A.
●Small group activity:Learners to agree a definition for each of the terms listed on the board.
●Individual activity: Learners check definitions using reference books and make any amendments to their definitions. Learners toproduce a glossary for personal reference. / Interactive whiteboard
Early yearscare and education reference books
2 / Factors that may lead to a child having additional needs, including genetic, developmental and environmental factors and accidents. / ●Teacher input: Recap previous session and introduce aims of this session.
●Paired activity: Sensory activity on the needs of a child with a visual impairment. Learners to work in pairs, one to be blindfolded and the other to lead them around classroom environment and act as their eyes. Once completed, learners to change places. Activity could be extended to encompass the outdoor environment.
●Small group activity:Learners to reflect on and discuss experiences from previous activity andmake notes on how a visual impairment may impact on the child’s daily life. Facilitate feedback.
●Teacher-led discussion: About factors that may lead to visual impairment and factors leading to otheradditional needs (genetic, developmental, environmental, accident/illness).
●Small group activity: Learners to revisit their thought showers from session 1 and organise the additional needs according to the factors that may have caused them. / Early years care and education reference books
Set of blindfolds
Interactive whiteboard
3 / How some children may have emotional health and wellbeing needs, including mental illness. / ●Teacher input:Recap previous session and introduce aims of this session.
●Teacher input:Introduce Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
●Paired activity:Learners define emotional health and wellbeing needs with reference to Maslow.
●Individual activity: Learners to reflect on the impact of additional needs on the emotions of children and their families and record thoughts.
●Teacher-led activity:Learners feedback from their reflectionon how some children may have emotional health and wellbeing needs and examples of ways to meet their needs.
●Teacher input:Introduce learners to a sample of the EYFS guidance materials (e.g. section on under threes), which gives examples of what adults can do to support children to develop positive relationships.
●Small group activity:Ask learners to discuss and write down suggestions on what adults can do to promote positive relationships for children from three years. / Interactive whiteboard
EYFS Framework and guidance materials (downloadable from
●‘Development matters in the early years foundation stage’
4 / How some children may have emotional health and wellbeing needs, including mental illness. /
  • Teacher input:Recap previous session and introduce aims of this session.
  • Small group activity: Learners to discuss and record how settings support children’s emotional needs, including mental health, confidence,
    self-esteem, self-identity, empowerment. Facilitatefeedback to whole group.
  • Small group activity: Learners to consider the following and produce a ‘Good Practice’ guide for a placement setting to ensure children have the opportunity to develop the following needs: attachments, bonding, relating to others, friendships, joining in, sharing, relating positively to adults, choice, one-to-one attention, having own personal space, nurturing, managing feelings, self-esteem, self-identity.
●Individual activity: Learners to research the work of Judy Dunn and make notes for their personal reference file. / EYFS Framework and guidance materials (downloadable from
  • ‘Development matters in the early years foundation stage’
Computers with internet access
Early years care and education reference books
Large planning sheets/pens
5 / The impact of additional needs on children, including discrimination, the effect on self-esteem and how this might affect outcomes for the child. /
  • Teacher input:Recap previous session and introduce aims of this session.
  • Teacher-led activity:Lead an oral questioning activity to explore common attitudes to additional needs, (including negative attitudes, stereotyping, fear, ignorance, lack of understanding, harassment, isolation, labelling, hostility and discrimination). Include other discriminatory terms you think a child with additional needs may experience. Answers to be written on whiteboard and collated for learners. Learners to receive a copy for reference.
  • Small group activity:On stereotyping – Learners to be given an assortment of pictures of children who have additional needs. Create a case study for each picture that includes the child’s age, family circumstances, name, and the setting they attend.Each group selects and passes on one case study to another group. Learners to discuss and describe the possible stereotyping the child and family in the case study may experience. Groups feed back their ideas to the rest of the class.
  • Individual activity:Place key term labels relating to discrimination (e.g. exclusion, bias, ignorance, harassment, isolation, unfairness) around the room. Learners to visit each key term and give an explanation of it with reference to additional needs and give two examples for each term about how this could affect a child with additional needs.
/ Interactive whiteboard
Assortment of photographs representing children with additional needs (e.g. child with hearing aids, wheelchair or walking frame user, child using Makaton)
Key terms cards
6 / The impact of additional needs on children, including discrimination, the effect on self-esteem and how this might affect outcomes for the child.
Issue Assignment 1, Task 1 to cover 3A.P1, 3A.P2, 3A.P3 and 3A.M1
Use centre-devised assignment.
Alternatively, use the authorised assignment from Pearson. /
  • Teacher input:Recap previous session and introduce aims of this session.
  • Teacher-led discussion:What is needed to create a positive enabling environment for all children to promote their self-esteem and better outcomes for the future?
  • Teacher presentation: Overview of assignment requirements, nature of assessment and timeline for completion/submission.
  • Individual activity:Learners to complete assignment independently and submit on agreed date.
/ EYFS Framework and guidance materials (downloadable from
  • ‘Development matters in the early years foundation stage’
Centre-devised assignment or use authorised assignment from Pearson
7 / The impact of additional needs on children, including discrimination, the effect on self-esteem and how this might affect outcomes for the child. /
  • Teacher input:Recap previous session and introduce aims of this session.
  • Small group activity: Learners to research a range of children’s books to discover if children with additional needs are fairly represented. Do the text and images used feature an assortment of children with different needs? Learners to feed back findings to the rest of the group.
  • Individual activity: Learners to write a story of their own that they could read to the children at their placement that features a child with additional needs as the main character. Learners need to make sure they feature the child in a positive light and ensure they use correct terminology. They should type up/word-process their story and include suitable illustrations. The work can be used for a display.
/ Assortment of popular children’s stories
Computers with internet access and printers
8 / The impact of additional needs of a child on a family, including the need for information, the need for coordinated support, the financial impact and the effect on siblings. /
  • Teacher input: Recap previous session and introduce aims of this session.
  • Guest speaker: For example, a member of staff from the National Autistic Society. Speaker to describe experiences of working with families where children have autism and being the parent of a child with autism. Speaker to also look at impact on siblings and financial effects. Followed by question and answer session.
  • Paired activity: Give learners a case study describing a child with complex needs and ask learners to discuss and identify the impact on a) the child and b) their family, in terms of discrimination, self-esteem, the need for information and support, and the financial impact, etc. Learners could also consider the impact on resources and the community.
  • Individual activity:Learners to carry out research on sources of information and support for families of children with additional needs.
/ Any resources that the guest speaker may need
Case study of a child with complex needs (which also describes several members of the family)
Computers with internet access
9 / The impact of additional needs of a child on a family, including the need for information, the need for coordinated support, the financial impact and the effect on siblings. /
  • Teacher input:Recap previous session and introduce aims of this session.
  • Small group activity: Produce and hand out to each group a case study about a child with additional needs and their family. Ask learners (in turn) to take on the role of one of the characters (e.g. the father, a sibling or a grandparent). Ask other learners in the group to ask the character questions about how the child’s additional needs impacts on them.
  • Small group activity:Ask learners to focus on either the needs/support required for siblings or the parent(s) in families where children have additional needs. They should create a thought shower about the needs they discuss. Facilitate feed back to group and collate information on the whiteboard. Learners to receive a copy of collated findings.
  • Small group activity:Learners to discuss either the support that can be put into place for the siblings or the needs of parents of children with additional needs and share information.
/ Case studies
Interactive whiteboard
Large sheets of paper and pens
Computers with internet access
10 / Issue Assignment 1, Task 1 to cover 3A.P1, 3A.P2, 3A.P3 and 3A.M1
Use centre-devised assignment.
Alternatively, use the authorised assignment from Pearson / ●Teacher input:Recap previous sessions and introduce aims of this session.
●Teacher input:Check knowledge and understanding so far with short quiz or recap activity.
●Individual activity:Learners to complete assignment independently and submit on agreed date. / Computers with internet access and printers
Recap quiz
Early years care and education reference books
Centre-devised assignment or use authorised assignment from Pearson
Learning aim B: Understand provision to support children with additional needs in early years settings
11 / The impact of the social model of disability on legislation and provision for children with additional needs. / ●Teacherinput: Recap previous sessions and introduce learning aim B and aims of this session.
●Teacher-led discussion:Lead a discussion about the change of attitudes from the medical model of disability to the social model of disability and its impact on legislation and provision for children with additional needs in terms of inclusive education. Discuss any tensions in the interpretation and application of needs under these models, e.g. is autism a social or medical model?
●Small group activity:Learners to research and produce a poster to be displayed in classroom that explains the social model of disability. / Assortment of paper and pens for posters
Computers with internet access
Early years care and education reference books
EYFS Framework and guidance materials (downloadable from
  • ‘Development matters in the early years foundation stage’

12 / Legislation, regulations and initiatives relating to children with additional needs relevant to the home country. / ●Teacher input:Recap previous sessions and introduce aims of this session.
●Teacher input:Provide guidance on websites from which to obtain information on legislation.
●Small group activity: Learners to research relevant legislation, regulations and initiatives relating to children with additional needs (e.g. Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001, Aiming High for Disabled Children programme, Every Child Matters, UN Convention on the rights of the child and the Cambridge Primary Review).
●Paired activity: Learners to select one piece of legislation, regulations or initiatives and do a search for it on the internet. Learners to look at the legislation/regulations/initiatives in relation to children with additional needs and produce a short PowerPoint® presentation of the information they have found supported by a handout for the class. / Computers with internet access, presentation software and word-processing programmes
Early years care and education reference books for research on legislation
13 / Legislation, regulations and initiatives relating to children with additional needs relevant to home country. /
  • Teacher input: Recap previous sessions and introduce aims of this session.
  • Whole group activity: Continuation from previous session with learners presenting information about their chosen legislation, regulation or initiative to the whole group.
  • Whole group activity:Matching exercise to recap previous two sessions. Learners to match title of a piece of legislation, a regulation, piece of guidance to a card containing its explanation.
/ Computers with internet access, presentation software and word-processing programmes
Interactive whiteboard
Two sets of cards for matching activity – one with titles of legislation, regulations and/or guidelines and one set with explanations of key legislation
Early years care and education reference books for legislation research
14 / The process for identifying and providing support for children with special educational needs relevant to home country. / ●Teacher input:Recap previous sessions and introduce aims of this session.
●Guest speaker:A Special Educational Needs Coordinator to discuss their role within a setting, to explain the process for early identification of children with additional needs, the legal processes and the support systems in place. Guest speaker to show and distribute examples of relevant documentation, such as SEN Code of Practice, Special Educational Needs Statutory Assessment, Individual Education Plan (IEP), the Statement of Special Educational Needs, Early Years Action and Early Years Action Plus.
●Whole group activity: Follow-up question and answer session.
●Small group activity:Learners to respondto following questions to assess learners’ understanding of the process for identifying and supporting children with special educational needs:
  • How does the teacher know what support the child needs?
  • Who will the teacher speak to, to find out about the child’s needs?
  • Why is it important for the teacher to review the progress the child is making?
/ Interactive whiteboard
Early years care and education reference books
Computers with internet access
Any resources needed by guest speaker (e.g. assortment of relevant documentation)
15 / The process for identifying and providing support for children with special educational needs relevant to home country. /
  • Teacher input:Recap previous session and introduce aims of this session.
  • Individual activity: Learners to produce a flow chart that describes the process of identifying and providing support for children with additional needs.
  • Small group activity:Learners to produce a display that illustrates and gives information on the staged approach to assessing and supporting children with special needs.
/ Creative materials, such as paper, felt pens, scissors, etc. for creating display
16 / The process for identifying and providing support for children with special educational needs relevant to home country. /
  • Teacher input:Recap previous session and introduce aims of this session.
  • Teacher-led discussion: Lead a discussion where learners talk about children with different additional needs in their placement. Remind learners to respect confidentiality.
  • Individual activity:Learners to create a case study about a child between four and six years of age who attends a primary school. The child must have some form of additional need. This could be based on a child known to learners but the child must not be identified (observing confidentiality).
  • Teacher input:Show an exemplar IEP (individual education plan) and discuss each section and the use of SMART targets.
  • Paired activity:Learners to use own case studies of a child with additional needs created earlier in the session and complete an IEP. Learners to add targets, resource requirements, descriptions of activity using SMART targets. Each pair should create two IEPs.
/ Information from previous session
SEN Toolkit (downloadable from
Computers with internet access
Early years care and education reference books
17 / Assignment workshop
Issue Assignment 1, Task 2 to cover 3B.P4, 3B.P5, 3B.P6, 3B.P7, 3B.M2, 3B.M3 and 3B.D1
Use centre-devised assignment.
Alternatively, use the authorised assignment from Pearson / ●Teacher input:Recap previous session and introduce aims of this session.